262: Resolution on Women’s Right to Land and Productive Resources

The African Commission on
Human and Peoples’ Rights, meeting at its 54th Ordinary Session held
in Banjul, The Gambia, from 22 October to 5 November 2013,

Recalling
its mandate to promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in Africa pursuant
to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) and the
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of
Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol);

Mindful
that women’s rights, based on the principles of equality and
non-discrimination, are recognised and guaranteed by all regional and international
instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol, the African
Charter and the Maputo Protocol;

Mindful of the relevant provisions
of the Maputo protocol, in particular Articles 7, 15, 19 and 21;

Mindful
of the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa adopted by the African
Union in 2009, in particular the provisions relating to strengthening women’s
right to land;

Recalling the African Women Decade (2010-2020) launched by the AU to promote gender
equality and women’s empowerment through expediting the implementation of the
relevant regional and global decisions and commitments;

Considering
that women’s access to, control over and use of land and productive
resources contribute to promoting gender equality and constitute a solid basis
for improving women’s social, political and economic status;

Recognising
women’s invaluable contribution to the effective use of land and their role in
developing strategies to ensure food security, community development and
sustainable agricultural practices on the continent;

Concerned
that even though most State Parties have ratified the Maputo Protocol and
other international instruments on women’s rights women are still deprived of
their right to own land and property and continue to experience discrimination
and harmful social practices as a result of gender inequality;

Considering that women
living in rural areas, women from poor and marginalized communities, women
living with disabilities and women infected by HIV/AIDS are more affected by
marginalisation;

Deeply
concerned that women are disproportionately affected by poverty,
climate change, forced evictions, dispossession of land and forced resettlement;

Conscious
that State Parties have the primary responsibility to ensure and protect
women’s right to land and property in Africa:

1.Urges State Parties that have not yet done so to ratify the Maputo Protocol and
ensure its effective implementation;

2.Urges State Parties to fully comply with their obligations and commitments to
ensure, protect and promote women’s right to land and property;

3. Encourages State Parties to repeal discriminatory laws and adopt legislative measures
to sanction customary practices that limit or have a negative impact on women’s
access to, use of and control over land and other productive resources;

4.Calls on State Parties to organise sustained public sensitisation, information and
education campaigns for community and religious leaders in order to transform
socio-cultural patterns of conduct that deprive women of their security of
enjoyment of and equal access to property, land and adequate housing;

5.Calls on State Parties to undertake land and agrarian reforms to ensure equal
treatment for women in rural development, land distribution and social housing
projects;

6. Further
urges State Parties to:

i) provide legal protection to women against forced evictions and dispossession
of land for use by public and private actors;

ii) ensure widows’ right to
inheritance, including the right to inherit the movable and immovable property
of their husbands, as well as their right, irrespective of the matrimonial
regime, to continue to live in the matrimonial house;

iii) ensure access to public
justice services for underprivileged women by providing effective remedies for
violations of their right to land and property, and free legal assistance in
order to ensure compensation and the restitution of land;

iv) ensure that financial and
microcredit institutions integrate the specific needs of women into their
policies and practices, including access to credit and income-generating
activities, especially for poor women and women heads of households;

v) integrate into national
HIV/AIDS control strategies, as well as farming and land policies, women’s
right to land and property;

vi) put in place special
measures to protect the property rights of women with disabilities.

vii) allocate specific
resources to investment programmes that support and strengthen initiatives by
rural women, in particular small-scale farmers;

7. Calls on international
institutions and regional economic communities to provide technical and
financial support to African governments towards achieving women’s right to
land and property, at all levels, in accordance with the Maputo Protocol and
other relevant international instruments.